On Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:17:43 -0400, Warp wrote:

> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> That's easily demonstrable by taking any court case where more than one
>> eyewitness produces a differing set of events.  Who do you believe if
>> they both can't be right?
> 
>   That makes it easy. The problems start when two eyewitnesses give the
> same testimony... which happens to be wrong.

Then it's the lawyer's job to prove that the eyewitnesses are wrong.  And 
that does happen quite often.

Real court in the US isn't like you see on TV.  I enjoy watching Law & 
Order, for example, but I have actually sat on a jury as well - and it's 
nowhere near as exciting as the TV shows make it out to be.

The drug trial that I sat on the jury for, for example, the lead of the 
SWAT team that broke down the door told us what he saw upon entering the 
house and what happened.  He was a professional witness, though, and as a 
trained observer, his version of what happened would naturally be given 
more weight unless his credibility was impeached (and it wasn't, though 
the newbie defense lawyer tried to).  The defendant didn't take the stand 
(because it turned out he was actually guilty - even the defense lawyer 
knew it - and if he'd been put on the stand, the prosecution would've 
shredded him).

>> >   For some reason most people also keep anecdotal evidence in high
>> >   regard,
>> > up to it being more credible than actual physical tests.
> 
>> I would disagree with that based on what I wrote above. :-)
> 
>   I said "most people", not "courts of law".

That's a fair point, and I had assumed you meant "in court" because 
that's most often what I think of when I hear about "eyewitness 
reports" (I don't spend a lot of time watching the news myself, so that 
may be what more people think about than just "court").

And I would agree that "most people" do tend to give an unreasonable 
amount of weight to anecdotal evidence - I deal with that on a daily 
basis.  One person writing an e-mail complaining about a course can have 
more effect than statistical data that shows that the course is actually 
quite good.

Jim

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